Luxury fashion houses Louis Vuitton and Burberry dive into the world of NFTs and online gaming

• Luxury fashion houses Burberry and Louis Vuitton are turning to NFTs and gaming to promote their brands.
• Burberry is releasing a NFT game character called "Sharky B", while a Louis Vuitton game offers 30 NFTs, including 10 by Beeple.
• Fashion brands are looking to tap into the NFT buzz, with Gucci among those reported to be eyeing a launch.

Luxury fashion houses Burberry and Louis Vuitton are turning to non-fungible tokens and gaming to promote their brands, as interest in digital art takes off.

Burberry will be releasing an NFT game character called "Sharky B" for Mythical Games' multiplayer online game "Blankos Block Party", it said in a statement Wednesday. The limited-edition character, which is covered in Burberry's "TB" monogram, will be available for in-game purchase on August 11.

"Pushing boundaries through experimentation sits at the heart of what we do at Burberry, and we are continually looking to connect with our communities in the spaces they love," Rod Manley, chief marketing officer at Burberry, said.

Separately, France's Louis Vuitton on Wednesday launched a mobile video game, where players can collect 30 free NFTs as they follow the brand's mascot Vivienne to Paris. "Louis: The Game" includes 10 NFTs by Beeple, the digital artist whose work sold for more than $69 million at auction in March.

The fashion industry has been looking to tap into the buzz around NFTs and their growing popularity to add luster to their brands. Gucci and several other fashion brands told Vogue Business in April they were looking at launching NFTs of their own.

Burberry and Louis Vuitton are joining digital fashion companies such as The Fabricant, which in 2019 auctioned an NFT for a digital garment, the Iridescence Dress. It went for nearly $10,000 at a time when the NFT market was in its infancy.

NFTs are unique digital tokens that represent real world assets such as pieces of artwork, videos and more. They are items that can be collected but are based on the blockchain network cryptocurrencies like bitcoin belong to. However, they are not interchangeable like cryptocurrencies are as their value is unique.

This article has been changed to correct the name of Burberry's chief marketing officer.